Welsh Community Broadcasting Federation (WCBF)
The''' Welsh Community Broadcasting Federation (WCBF)' is a loose federation of community broadcasters based mainly in South Wales and the Marches area, with the tagline "Pioneering Independent Broadcasting for Individuals and Communities". It began in September 2005 as Glam TV, Wales' first Student Television. broadcasting to the students of Glamorgan University - Due to increasing difficulties and an apathy with the original audience, it Federated into WCBF in September 2010. As Glam TV (Sept 2005 -August 2010) Glam TV was launched by media production, drama and bookwriting students at the University of Glamorgan in September 2005 - initially as a Student Society - airing it's student & staff made programmes on two platforms: #Fortnightly Student Union Showreels - Shown in Baa Bars in the Students Union in Trefforest and shown on DVD, this arrangement lasted for about 2 years. #Shapeit.org - An online community-based media initiative that Glam TV took part in very briefly. These early programmes were given the full co-operation of the media department of the Resource Centre Library in Treforest, with both camera equipment and editing studios given carte blanc access in an agreement that was held for roughly 2 years by the station. Even the Student's Union funded some of the early productions, including a Red Dwarf Fan-Film made by the Glamorgan Book Society called "Afternoon of the Polymorph" that won a runner-up appearing on the extras of the Season 7 Red Dwarf DVD box set. An 18 second station 'dinosaur' ident animation that was produced by Glam TV, became the station's most famous and viewed video of all time, reaching 8.5 million views by the end of 2017, with an average of 5,000 views per week - and for a short while, earning the station over $20 (approx £15) on the adsense scheme in 2017 - which was ironic, seeing as from 2007, the Chair of Glam TV had mentioned that the station's budget was at the time "minus 80 pence" given the growing divide between the aspirations of the station, the university and the students union - not to mention an unexpected expanding of campuses and distances with the proposed opening of ATRium in Cardiff, moving the majority of the media production students out of Treforest where Glam TV had first established itself. The structure of Glam TV was organised into production divisions, led by loose production companies or teams: *Comedy Division (Led by the Adveho Company) *Drama (Led by the drama students) *Features & Livestreaming (Led by DJFM Industries Television (DJFMITV)) 'Glam TV Future & 'Project Evolution' From 2007 onwards, the station and it's student production crew attempted to re-launch to reinvogorate and continue regular showings in the Students Union on a schedule. However, despite being Wales' only NaSTA affiliated Student TV station at the time, support from the Student Union was waining (almost considering the station as a sideline inconvienience). A big PR event for the station (in conjunction with the Glam RAG society) was planned in Trefforest, but gained little traction due to the huge logistics and costs. The imminent launch of the ATRium building for media studies in Cardiff, meant a 30 mile round journey for students in Trefforest and Glyntaf to take part in the station, draining alot of the talent sources elsewhere. In an audio extract at the time, the chair of Glam TV stated their concerns and their stated options (written down later in detail in the "Glam TV: Recommendations" document). The plan however lost traction and much of the membership numbers dropped to around half a dozen people, with disaphiliation also with the Students Union and hence losing the union showreel time - and due to the new pressures of studying, the chair handed the reigns over, but even this became a complicated process, as there was no statutory instruments or agreements to keep to (even the agreement between Glam TV and the Resource Centre had not been written down to keep it going - forcing the remaining team to use whatever equipment they could get their hands on from their own budgets). From September 2008, despite a chair having been appointed at the AGM, the lack of commitment by the staff, as well as attempts by a student member of university staff to aquire the station by ruining all efforts to make it work, meant that in practise the skeleton crews of M&W productions and DJFMITV, were carrying out the majority of the day-to-day operations of the station. In practise, after a few months after the publishing of the "Project Evolution" plan by the former chair of the station, and it was clear that the only people capable of running Glam TV past 2008, was DJFMITV - with it's head David Malins in mid 2008, aquiring the chairship of Glam TV de facto from the previously appointed chair (who was unable to assume their post due to other commitments) - with only a few members left of the student television society left to continue it's work across multiple campuses at the University. '''Glam TV 'Skeleton Crew' & Livestreaming Success The running of Glam TV for the rest of the time it was known as Glam TV, would become very difficult - especially for Malins' improptu chairship. DJFMITV was now almost the sole source of programming for the station and the methods of which to do it - operating as a skeleton crew of between 2 and 3 people at most. Despite this set-back, Glam TV was joined by Alex Jones, the presenter of WCBF's Torquing Motorsport Show - who to this day continues to provide invaluble moral support for the broadcaster, as well as Matthew Mills of Enigmatic Films, whom provides the station with specially-produced title soundtracks. DJFMITV produced off-the-cuff coverage and extras videos to youtube for the Student Union Elections for 2007 and 2008 for Glam TV, as well as the announcement of the intentions of the Students Union to build a better purpose-built structure for itself. This skeleton crew in November of 2008, launched Glam TV's first livestreamed programme from Treforrest in the Students Union to try raising funds for "Help For Heros" (Picture Right)- demonstrating that even at this difficult time that Glam TV could still do alot if people were investing time and effort into the station: The live show featured an unsigned band and improvised theatre comedy from Ludus Ludius & Glamorgan Improvisational Troupe. It was realised that with the membership shortage only becoming worse, that there needed to be a focus - that became the earlier livestreaming of events. The Students Union surprisingly gave publicity to these livestream casts on their website early on - most of these casts used equipment that by now were wearing down very quickly and with no spares or other people to lend a hand - leading most of the time to Malins becoming the sole member of the skeleton crew producing content by DJFMITV for Glam TV, as well as on request for example an adver for Fresher's Fayer for the local Chrisitian Union (Picture Left) In 2009, despite attempts to try and get more specialist students involved, another society (TeleSoc) had been set-up in ATRium - It's founder had publically made it known to their potential members that Glam TV was a rival that they would of liked the name of - despite Glam TV approaching them in a concerted effort to encourage both to join forces with themselves and Tequila Radio (in a plan devised by Malins and Jones) - however, TeleSoc failed to produce any material before it folded in 2010. After an unwritten ban on media coverage in the Students Union, as well as a severe breakdown from the pressure on Malins at the Uni, not to mention no end in sight to the lack of support for Wales' First Student TV station (especially from the elitism that had developed at ATRium). It was decided that February 2010 that the Chinese New Year Gala would be one of the last big shows to be simulcast by Glam TV. The Chinese Student Society President Jie Sun, Student Council Chair James Koash and Malins, along with other key people, met to loan out equipment, set up details for the show - as well as the livestream to spread the programme throughout the ATRium in Cardiff - with a crew of 2 camera operators and a vision controller. Malins announced to a round of applause at 11pm to the gathered guests upstairs in ATRium after the show, that the gala was the highest viewed live production Glam TV had ever filmed - bringing to a perfect close the end of an era for Wales' first Student TV station. Whilst there were attempts after February of 2010 to produce content, the opportunities became few and far between with fewer and fewer people, with livestreaming still proceeding, but on a much smaller scale: for example within the Wales IV Debate Tournaments - alot of these interlaced with information screens and pre-recorded radio programmes. As WCBF (September 2010 - Present) It was clear to Malins by mid-2010 that Glam TV could not continue in it's present form in such a hostile media environment (which has been noted by others in media circles before) - and that it could not survive by purely providing television which was slowly being superceeded by many more independent producers on other platforms and in-house by other organisations with more influence - not to mention still continued threats of hostility by those who just wanted to control ths station and it's content. To take a step-back, it was decided that Glam TV would be federated by it's remaining key members - forming (what was initially termed in September 2010 the Welsh Community and Student Broadcasting Federation (WCSBF) then later shortened due to the dissolving of student audience numbers to simply) The Welsh Community Broadcasting Federation (WCBF) - This federation would look at indepdent Television, Radio and Print Media as part of a combined whole, remaining active also as an archive hub for all the previous surviving footage from the former Glam TV. This not only ensured the most sensible solution for the problems it had been facing, but also allowed better focusing on more specialist programmes like the Torquing Motorsport Show, which is aired every saturday at 5pm and aired again as a podcast on the WCBF youtube channel - even producing some limited 'pocket money' revenue to the broadcaster for the first time in it's history on a budget of practically 'minus 80 pence', as well as limited live coverage of events, such as that held in 2011 by Zeitgeist Cardiff (unfortunately due to the limited resources & lack of suitable support to creators on the livestream platform, the footage of this no longer survives). Whist towards 2018, WCBF was not currently as active as it once was, it has regained it's following, beating DJFMITV's viewing figures (despite the latter's coverage being more widespread on sites like "The Sprout") - even producing a recent news report into Snow Storm Emma in March 2018(see photo left) #projectphoenix Project pheonix is a new project coming to Glam TV/WCBF and to build the station into a much more effective broadcaster for it's audience, along with providing more opportunities in jobs and volunteering to the community, students and alumni in South Wales. As of yet, details have been limited, with a hashtag appearing on social media from the 12th May 2018 - In January 2019, a big development in the next stage was tagged #ProjectRay, in which aimed to increase education & broadening of alternative culture to combat forced cultural & societal hegemony, which is responsible for many of the problems faced in society over the past decade. 'The Glam TV Lost Showreels & Equipment Appeal' In February 2019, after much research, discovered that so much material and equipment was unaccounted for - that an appeal was launched to uncover any and all archives, records, materials & equipment of Glam TV's early days that was produced between 2005 and 2007. Of particular importance to WCBF, is recovering the First and Third Edition showreels, as well footage aired on the Shape-it.org community television network , as well as 'freebie' DVDs in editions of The Leek Magazine. Numerous Subject Access Requests (SARs) were sent to various bodies - so far most of these requests have been replied inconclusively - which forced WCBF to search wider for material. In what few archives of the early material remains (including unprocessed MiniDV footage due to problems with legacy equipment of the era - along with transfers of a very small number of productions from a harddrive), only excerpts (often in low-quality) of shows (some of which were thankfully still uploaded onto youtube) and the 2nd Edition Showreel were recovered - most other programmes are presumed missing, unaccounted for, or lost from the archive. Adpocalypse, YouTuber's Union Despite an initial attempt in 2018 to provide more exposure & facilitate more use of the archives & programmes of WCBF & it's aphiliates, Youtube's mainstream media led policy changes, made it difficult to disseminate WCBF's programmes and to gain what little adsense revenue covered by it to help with Skeleton Crew operations. An appeal shortly after to gain more viewers & to assist other creators, whilst being successful, was way short of the month's notice target. In 2019, with ongoing and increasing problems with the site and it's impact on other users, WCBF joined the YouTuber's Union (AKA: Fairtube), despite Youtube refusing to meet YTU's representatives or any youtubers. WCBF also decided to launch a Go Fund Me, with a target of £10k, to start raising funds for furthering the establishment of a more permanent community media network in Wales Notable Programmes & Productions *"Year of the Tiger: Chinese New Year Gala Extravaganza 2010" *"Torquing Motorsport Show" - *"Afternoon of the Polymorph" Featured on one of the original Glam TV Student Union Showreels *"Mildly Messed Up" Soap Opera - Featured on one of the original Glam TV Student Union Showreels *Glam TV 'Dinosaur Ident' *"Plenary Plonkers" - Improvised Comedy Series